{"id":5766,"date":"2017-04-20T13:24:53","date_gmt":"2017-04-20T18:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/?p=5766"},"modified":"2017-04-21T09:20:33","modified_gmt":"2017-04-21T14:20:33","slug":"trump-defining-us-in-tribalracial-terms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/trump-defining-us-in-tribalracial-terms\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Defining US in Tribal\/Racial Terms"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chip Somodevilla \/ Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

In addition to\u00a0the ceaseless and tiresome lies that issue from his mouth (e.g., he did not do “very well” in New Hampshire<\/a>. \u00a0He lost. \u00a0That’s a trivial example, but it illustrates – again! – that he can barely open his mouth without a lie falling out<\/a>), the other thing I think I find most discouraging about our current president is his insistence on defining the US in divisive, ugly and harmful racial and tribal terms – and projecting that identity to the world.<\/p>\n

In a magazine piece from a few weeks ago, Jonathan Chait describes the odious effort and its results so far very well (emphasis added<\/strong>). \u00a0These are just a few snippets; the whole piece<\/a> gives you a more depth.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump\u2019s Race War<\/a><\/h2>\n

His message of tribalism is his most successful and dangerous accomplishment.<\/em><\/p>\n

…<\/a><\/p>\n

Measured in traditional terms, Trump\u2019s accomplishments as president have been meager. He made a series of popular campaign promises,<\/strong> such as replacing Obamacare with something terrific, negotiating more clever trade deals, and building a wall on the Mexican border, that require technocratic aptitude to deliver and thus have mostly floundered.<\/strong> But traditional measures do not capture the most profound changes he has wrought.<\/p>\n

Where he has defined Trumpism most clearly is in his sharply distinguished theory of race.<\/strong> Race is the unifying idea Trump has used to recast not only his party\u2019s place within the country but his country\u2019s place in the world. It is where his administration has been most passionate \u2014 and also most effective. Unlike economic<\/a> or health-care policy<\/a>, which requires dealing with Congress, Trump\u2019s ethnonationalist program can be carried out by Trump and his tight band of loyalists on their own. And while Trump has foundered at the complex work of policymaking, he has succeeded at the simple work of tribalism, precisely because it is so simple. In both words and deeds, the White House has established the federal government as the defender of white power in America<\/strong>, projecting a blunt-force message of zero-sum dominance. Trump has done little to change the country\u2019s policies, but ten weeks into his tenure, he has already made the United States a very different place and positioned himself to reap the terrible rewards that will follow.<\/p>\n

…<\/a><\/p>\n

That is a dangerous formula. Race has unique power to tear apart the bonds that hold together even an apparently harmonious society.<\/strong> In democratic India in 2002, Hindu nationalists slaughtered more than 2,000 Muslims, and Narendra Modi, the nationalist political figure linked to the murders, was elected prime minister in 2014. Serbian nationalists turned once-peaceful, multiethnic Sarajevo into a tribal bloodbath. If these comparisons sounds inconceivably dark, you may not fully appreciate the darkness of the vision animating the minds surrounding the president.<\/p>\n

…<\/a><\/p>\n

In 1990, former president Ronald Reagan gave a speech<\/strong> commemorating the end of the Cold War. At its conclusion, he delivered a few lines of mom-and-apple-pie pabulum that if said today would come across as pointed defiance of the president. \u201cI wonder yet if you\u2019ve appreciated how unusual \u2014 terribly unusual \u2014 this country of ours is?\u201d<\/strong> Reagan said. \u201cI received a letter just before I left office from a man. I don\u2019t know why he chose to write it, but I\u2019m glad he did. He wrote that you can go to live in France, but you can\u2019t become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Italy, but you can\u2019t become a German, an Italian. He went through Turkey, Greece, Japan, and other countries. But he said anyone, from any corner of the world, can come to live in the United States and become an American<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reagan\u2019s notion of American identity was hardly a matter of unanimity throughout American history. (Ask the Know-Nothings.) But over the course of the 20th century, America\u2019s identity as a uniquely permeable culture settled into the consciousness of the country and the world. That is the idea Trump has set out to change.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And to a significant degree, he has already accomplished his goal. For all his legislative struggles, Trump has always had a talent for loudly communicating simple concepts. His ethnonationalist redefinition of American identity has broken through.<\/strong> Travel companies have reported a drop in interest in international tourism to the U.S. Applications to American colleges from overseas have also dropped. Jaganmohan Reddy, the father of one of the men murdered in Kansas, told<\/a> the Washington Post, \u201cThe situation seems to be pretty bad after Trump took over as the U.S. president. I appeal to all the parents in India not to send their children to the United States in the present circumstances.\u201d In ways that are impossible to quantify, the message has been heard: by law enforcement, by people defacing Jewish cemeteries and shouting slurs at minorities, by people around the world. These are all straws in the wind that is emanating from President Trump\u2019s mouth.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Further reading:<\/p>\n